The present invention relates to a collapsible wire cage of the type generally used for animal enclosures.
Wire animal cages are often used for confining animals, either in a particular location such as a kennel, animal show or the like, or during transportation of animals from one location to another. It is desirable that such cages be collapsible for easy storage and handling when not in use, and a number of prior art animal cages have been of collapsible construction.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,058 of Smiler, for example, a collapsible cage is formed from six wire grille panels having detachable hinges which allow the cage to be separated into two pieces of three hinged sections each, which can be folded flat for storage. This has the disadvantage that two separate sections must be stored, with consequent difficulty in reassembling and risk of loosing one section. It is more difficult to carry two separate parts from a place of storage to a place where they are to be used, and the parts are separated by completely removing two hinge rods which also must be stored and may easily be lost.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,129,011 of Pyle a folding shipping crate is described which has top and bottom walls hinged to the respective side walls so that the top and one side wall can be folded flat against the bottom and other side wall. A similar collapsing arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,892,562 of Smithson. This has the disadvantage that a large rectangular area is required for storage, since the collapsed cage will have a length equal to the sum of the height of the side walls and the width of the top or bottom walls.